China's censors restrict coverage of US election, but allow reporting scandals from event

China's censor board is reported to have ordered digital news media and other news outlets on the mainland to avoid "excessive" coverage of the US presidential election in which Republican candidate Donald Trump sent shock waves across the globe by clinching a historic victory.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a source said Chinese censors had urged all media houses in the state to not provide any live coverage or broadcast of the poll – the world's biggest news event of the day.

However, the media were reportedly asked not to miss out on any scandals during the vote and report them "in a timely manner". The censors also allowed news media to criticise "in depth" political abuses in the election, said a source, who did not want to be named because the instructions were confidential.

The crackdown on media reporting the world's biggest news event of the day apparently shows the efforts taken by the communist government in keeping its public away from possible influence from western ideologies and democracy, an unnamed analyst was quoted as saying by the news website.

The state-run news agency Xinhua and the People's Daily had little coverage of the elections on Wednesday (9 November) morning.

The communist country was trying to have control over media and dictate what it communicates to its people to discredit the poll, according to Qiao Mu, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

"They want to make Chinese people believe that western democracy is bad," said Qiao.

Major news websites like QQ.com and 163.com placed the 45<sup>th presidential election as their second top story, giving priority to a recent speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The SCMP website claimed that live coverage of the vote on Ifeng.com news website's mobile app and Wechat were deleted on Wednesday morning.

China is known to have come down heavily on anyone favouring democracy. It has never accepted Hong Kong or Taiwan's complete independence choice.

China made use of the US election time to write editorial pieces thrashing western democratic systems. For example, the People's Daily published a commentary on Tuesday (8 November) titled: 'No matter who wins, US presidential election reveals 'ill' democracy'. It went on to say, "history will deem this election the most dark, chaotic and negative one in the past two centuries. It certainly will not be viewed as a victory of democracy."